


Bedtime stories.

by Jackeline Harkness (Jackeline_Harkness)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Bedtime Stories, Fairy Tale Style, Gen, M/M, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 11:17:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8204038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jackeline_Harkness/pseuds/Jackeline%20Harkness
Summary: In a forgotten corner of the universe, on a small moon, in a tiny house above a workshop, lives a little boy.He spends his days learning how to fix spaceships and playing with trinkets from the whole universe. But the highlight of his day is definitely bedtime. Then, his father will tell him stories from worlds lightyears away. Still, there is one that is his absolute favorite.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you're giving this tiny story a chance and if so, I thank you so much in advance!
> 
> This is a short stand-alone story, but it's also a seedling for something a lot bigger. Please, kindly let me know what you think.

**Bedtime story.**

“Did you check the shutters?”

“All closed, daddy!”

“Teeth?”

“Brushed!” exclaimed the little boy.

“Ok, then it’s time for bed.”

“Yay!”

The father watched with a fond smile as his little boy bounced from the ratty couch to the metallic floor, wondering if there was another child in the whole universe that actually loved bedtime as much as his own did.

Stretching to try to alleviate the ache in his shoulder, he followed his son, who was already pulling on his pajamas and fluffing his pillow. The bed hadn’t been made in days, since he’d changed the sheets, but he guessed he could forego that kind of thing when it was just the two of them in the tiny house above the shop.

“What would you like to hear?” he asked, grabbing the tablet from where he’d left it the night before and going to the chair right next to the small bed.

“The fairy tale!”

“Again? You sure you don’t want me to read something else? Got a few new stories today,” he said, holding up the micro disk he’d gotten from the bookstore earlier that afternoon, right before picking the kid up from school.

“I’m sure.”

“You’ve heard that one thousands of times already.”

“I’m only five years old. I haven’t even been alive for _thousands_ of days, so you’re exaggerating. That’s what my teacher says.”

“Well, your teacher’s a smart lady.”

 “She is,” the boy nodded very seriously. “Fairy tale?”

The man chuckled, leaving the tablet and the disk back on the night table.

“Alright, fairy tale,” he agreed brushing his black hair out of his face as he took a more comfortable position on the chair. “Ready?”

“Yup!” and the boy shuffled, burying himself in his blanket nest.

“Ok,” he cleared his throat. “A long time ago, before you were born… thousands of days ago,” he smiled at the look his son threw his way, “there was a big world where war had been going on for so long, that no one alive remembered the days when the world had been at peace. Still, it was a beautiful place, with big rivers, lakes and oceans of clean water, with huge places where there was nothing but raw rocks, real soil, and plants of every size, some as tall as control towers.”

“Trees!”

“Yeah, trees,” he agreed. “There were also a lot of different animals living there, in the forests,” he paused. “Still, despite the beauty that surrounded them, people never stopped fighting, even though it made everyone miserable. Then one day, a star fell down on the land, and the star looked like a beautiful girl, and she told the people that a child of the stars would be born among them, and that child would bring an end to the war.”

The boy’s eyes glistened as he looked at his father, grinning at him as he gave his father the familiar prompt to continue.

“And he was?”

“Oh, yes. He was born in a very normal family, but everyone knew he was especial as soon as he was born.”

“How did they know he was special?”

“Well, he had eyes as blue as sapphires, and hair as silver as starlight.”

“Like me!”

“Yeah, buddy, just like you,” he smiled, and then he continued. “So the little boy lived with his family and friends, until one day the war came to their little city, and the boy and his friends had to fight, too, because they wanted to protect themselves, their families, and their homes.” He paused. “In any case, they had to fight the war for a long, long time, but little by little, the boy and his friends managed to remind the world that there were beautiful things for them, and that they didn’t need to fight all the time. And after long years, the world was finally at peace, and named him their king.”

“The Ice King.”

“Yeah. But not because he was cold or anything. He was, in fact, a very warm and friendly person… but people saw this man, their new king, and thought he reminded them of ice, because of his white skin and silver hair.”

The little boy nodded.

“And so for a while, there was peace. The king married his best friend, whom he’d loved since they were little boys, and who loved him very much, too, and with the king and his consort watching, the world knew true happiness for a few years.”

The man let his eyes get lost in the faded orange patterns of his son’s blankets, a part of him wondering why peace and happiness never lasted, not even in stories that ended in more than a sentence.

“Daddy?”

“Sorry, where was I?”

“The king married his best friend.”

“Oh, yeah. So they got married, and they were happy, but then some people at the court, the people who helped the king rule his world, they got worried, because the world needed to have a prince or a princess who could take care of the world afterwards, when… when the king was old and needed to rest.”

The boy nodded, his face getting serious in anticipation of what was next in the story.

“But the king and his consort couldn’t have a prince or princess on their own…”

“Because they’re both boys.”

“Yeah, because they were both boys. So they needed the help of a friend, who was a girl, and who promised to help them have their child, so the people from the court could stop worrying. And so she helped them… but even before the king’s child was born, she got jealous, and she was less and less happy every day.”

“But why was she not happy? Wasn’t she their friend, too?”

“She was. But she also loved the king… she’d loved the king since they were friends as children, too. And she was sad that she couldn’t be his queen, because the king loved someone else.” He cleared his throat before continuing. “And so, some shadows in the palace told her that she should be queen if she was the mother of the prince or princess, and though everything else was good, the shadows kept telling her lies… so when the baby prince was born, and the king and his consort were full of joy, she was even sadder than she’d been, felt even lonelier than before. And when she was the saddest, a little spider came out of the shadows to rest upon her shoulder, and told her she could be the queen, if only the king didn’t have a consort anymore.”

He paused for only a minute, drinking a sip of water off the bottle he’d left there the night before.

 “And so the little spider and some evil friends told the prince’s mother how she could get rid of the king’s consort, and invited him to the water gardens, where the most beautiful flowers grew… and where the most dangerous currents passed. She tricked the king’s consort into leaving everyone else behind and following her to the lowest level of the gardens, and then, the spider’s friends pushed the consort into the fountains. The water was strong there, and ran fast and formed currents that were like tunnels in the water, and the consort’s clothes were heavy and they got heavier when they were soaked, so he couldn’t swim. However, the king was there, looking for his love and his friend, so he got his own clothes off and jumped into the fountains. He saved his love… but he couldn’t save himself… he was dragged by the currents, and he drowned.”

The little boy listened raptly, his eyes wide.

“And while the prince’s mother cried in the gardens, calling for someone to help the king, the king’s consort ran through the palace, took the little prince, jumped onto a ship and left that world without taking a look back.”

“What happened to the prince’s mother?”

“She listened to the spider and the shadows, repeated the lies she was told to say… and she became queen. But she could never be truly happy, knowing she had betrayed the love of her life.”

“And the king’s consort?”

“He fled as far as he could. Hid in a little moon at the edge of the galaxy. Opened a little shop, since he was always good with ships, waiting for the little prince to grow up, to become wise and strong like his father was, so he could return to his world and be the new king.”

The little boy nodded, brows furrowed.

“Daddy?”

“Mh?”

“If the queen was the prince’s mommy… why did the consort take him away? Would she have hurt him, her own baby?”

“I don’t know…” he hesitated, taken aback. He wondered what it meant that his little boy had started asking questions. “I don’t think so. But the consort was scared, he loved the prince very much, and he didn’t know what other things the spider and the shadows could convince the queen of, so he wasn’t about to take any chances.”

The boy remained in silence for a moment, then he spoke up again.

“Why is there always an evil queen in stories?”

“There’s plenty of evil kings in the universe,” the father chuckled. “Only they’re so common, they don’t write cool stories about them. Their stories are called political news, and are boring as hell. They might do a better job at putting you to sleep than stories with evil queens, though.”

“I’ll sleep,” the boy promised, although he was wide awake.

“I know,” he smiled, smoothed the covers over his boy and leaned in to kiss his forehead before going to dial the lights off and turning to exit the tiny room.

“Sweet dreams, daddy.”

“Sweet dreams, little prince.”


End file.
